The innkeeper isn’t part of most Nativity sets. No one sings carols about innkeepers. There don’t seem to be any paintings that include them. But we can imagine the scene: Bethlehem is crowded with people coming home for the census. It’s late at night when the innkeeper responds to a knock on...

We light our chalice as a symbol of gratitude as we celebrate the abundance of our lives together. In this sanctuary we harvest bushels of strength for one another, and offer our crop with the hands of compassion and generosity....

May I remember in this tender moment that Love is my guide, always, shepherding me toward ways of openness and compassion. I have what I need, really, with Love at my side, above me, below me, in front of me, behind me, inside every cell of me, Love infused everywhere! Just when the weight of the...

Imagine if Easter preachers—and all the rest of us—had the chutzpah of Mary Magdalene.

When we take fire from our chalice, it does not become less. It becomes more. And so we extinguish our chalice, but we take its light and warmth with us, multiplying their power by all of our lives, and sharing it with the world.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for...

Seeds, scattered on fertile ground, are warmed by the sun and fed by the soil. They sprout and grow, producing great fields of grain. The grain is harvested and ground into flour and shipped across the nation....

"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." — Hebrews 13:2 Hebrews is a book in the New (Greek) Testament; it's an epistle (or letter) written by an unknown author before 70 CE.

"If your brother becomes impoverished and his means falter in your proximity, you shall strengthen him—stranger or resident—so that he can live with you." Levtitcus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible (sometimes called the Old Testament) and the third of five books of the Torah (or...

In the river, the water continually flows on, yet the river is ever there. "Our lives flow on in endless song," yet life and joy shall never end. Quotation from the traditional Quaker song, "My Life Flows on in Endless Song," #108 in Singing the Living Tradition.